iWish I Knew
by iPepsi
Summary: There isn't supposed to be anything you can't tell your best friend, right? Wrong. Nothing is easy to hide, but sometimes you feel you have to try. Too bad you still fail.
1. Chapter 1

It began with one of those moments that are so cliché you have to wonder how it snuck its way into reality.

"Sam, she's looking over here," Carly explains in a panicked voice.

"Who?" Sam questions, having no idea why Carly is panicking.

"Aspen Phillips."

Sam looks around curiously, but doesn't spot anyone that appears to be staring in their direction.

"Again, who?"

"Ugh no time to explain, she's coming over here…just follow my lead," Carly begs before a taller brunette girl with a fit body and blue eyes appears.

"Hey Carly, I see you're cooling off with a delicious smoothie."

"Cooling off? It's below fifty degrees outside," Sam cuts in unashamed.

"No matter the temperature. Carly is always smokin' hot."

"Excuse me?" Sam begins to question, but Carly interrupts.

"Settle down, hun. She doesn't know."

Sam and Aspen both send confused expressions in Carly's direction at the inclusion of 'hun'.

"Well, uh, maybe you should inform her about what she doesn't know," Sam persuades, playing along as Carly had asked her to earlier.

"Oh yeah, sorry Aspen…I don't believe you've met my girlfriend. This is Sam."

Aspen directs her attention to Sam, giving her a once over, then gives a fake sideways grin.

"You pick 'em a little odd Shay, but there's nothing I like more than a challenge."

It takes all the self-restraint Sam has not to reach out and do harmful things to Aspen after she finishes her comment. Carly can tell Sam is getting tense and sighs.

"Please leave us alone. I'm not interested."

"Right, gimme a call when you figure out your 'girlfriend' here still macks on the dudes."

Aspen turns briskly and walks out of the Groovy Smoothie without even ordering a drink. Sam looks at Carly, clearly amused now that she is gone.

"I used to think Freddie was the worst person who could ever have an obsessive crush on you. Silly me, ruling out our gender completely when forming that thought."

Carly looks at Sam disappointedly and it's hard to tell whether it's an effect of her reaching the end of her smoothie or relating to the situation with Aspen.

"Our French teacher assigned her the seat beside me. She hardly pays attention to the lessons at all. It feels like she's always watching me instead."

Sam frowns.

"Skunk bag's gaydar must be broken. You only daydream about baking cookies on attractive male specimen."

Out of nowhere, Carly changes the subject.

"We should head over to my place. Tons of homework to do."

Sam originally fails to see motive behind the quick distraction from the progressing topic, but it doesn't take long for that frame of mind to change.


	2. Chapter 2

Freddie appears at the girls' lockers just as they are finishing giggling over a joke that he didn't arrive in time to overhear.

"Is it true?" he asks in a rushed voice, looking between Carly and Sam rapidly.

"Is what true?" Carly questions in return.

"Yeah dork, we can't read your mind through all that techno static," Sam adds with a smirk.

"I overheard in film class that you two are...ugh, I can't say it. Rumors are hardly ever true anyway."

Sam grabs Freddie by the collar in a vicious manner.

"What did you hear? Tell us or you're gonna feel pain in unconventional places," she threatens him with ease.

"These two guys were talking about how Aspen walked in on you two...making out…in the bathroom at Groovy Smoothie."

Sam releases her grip from Freddie's shirt and Carly's eyes go wide.

"Carly, I'm taking a field trip to your French class. That chick is mine."

"She'd probably like that," Freddie says smartly, knowing as well as anyone in the school about Aspen's preferences.

Carly cuts in before things can get uglier.

"Freddie, Aspen made that up because I won't go out with her."

Freddie appears stunned.

"You? But, but you're not…that."

"Come on Carly, I _really _just want to…" Sam trails off, clenching her fists.

"Both of you. Calm down. Freddie, a girl having a crush on me does not mean I'm a lesbian. Sam, you're not going to physically harm Aspen."

Freddie apologizes but Sam argues back.

"Why not? She insulted me last night, and now she's telling everyone that you and I whore around with each other in public places."

"You'll be expelled if you start another fight. I was there when Principal Franklin told you that they'd fire him if he didn't issue the highest form of discipline on you with the next offense."

Sam mutters something about the fight being worth it when the five minute warning bell to signal the end of lunch sounds and the three friends go off in their separate directions. But not without a fight from Sam, requiring both Freddie's and Carly's combined efforts to prevent her from following the students filing to French.


	3. Chapter 3

Carly is tapping her pencil on her math book while lying on her stomach across a bean bag in the studio. She turns the pencil around to begin working out the story problem she just finished reading when a vibration against her leg interrupts. The number that flashes across the cell phone screen is unfamiliar and the name is listed as unknown.

"Hello?" Carly answers tentatively.

"Hi Carly!" Aspen's voice sounds bouncily on the other end.

Carly groans and contemplates hanging up, but curiosity gets the best of her.

"How did you get my number?"

Aspen's annoying giggle sounds on the other end.

"I overheard when you were giving it to someone else."

"Why are you stalking me and spreading rumors around school?"

"Stalking? Last night was coincidence. And I thought you'd be relieved to come out at school. It was kind of lonely being the only one."

"I'd appreciate it if you would lose my number and stop staring at me during class," Carly replies, fed up.

"But I really like you…"

"Sam and I are serious. Sorry," Carly lies easily.

"I doubt it. Most of the school might speculate about Sam, but I know better. She's as straight as a line. You're the one confused."

Carly slams her phone shut and tosses it onto one of the bean bag chairs behind her. All attempts to focus on homework are unsuccessful as her mind continues to wander in a direction she doesn't like.

An unexpected jolt of the door surprises Carly about an hour later. She looks up from the English assignment she has moved on to and sees Sam wandering in, taking a seat beside her.

"Why aren't you home? This isn't one of your usual nights over here."

"I got an anonymous text message telling me to 'witch my bach'. How can I possibly take on an illiterate threat-giver without back-up?"

"What was the number? I think I may know who sent it," Carly explains, reaching for the phone that Sam nearly sat on by accident.

Sam takes out her phone and they compare the number.

"Aspen called me from the same number," Carly concludes.

Sam growls while putting her phone away.

"You sure I can't lock her up somewhere isolated and make Freddie swallow the key?"

Carly smiles at the thought but quickly shakes her head.

"You're the first person they'd question when she went missing…are you spending the night?"

"I dunno. I wouldn't want Aspenrazzi to _accidently_ catch me breathing in the same room as you. It may be in the rumor mill tomorrow that we shared your shower."

"Right, I can totally see how she'd confuse air with a shower."


	4. Chapter 4

Sam, Carly, and Freddie are finishing up their last rehearsal of the week and preparing to split up for dinner. Carly checks her cell, noticing she missed some calls while it was set to silent.

"I have thirteen voice mails," Carly exclaims, her expression demonstrating confusion.

"I have four," Sam adds as she discovers the similar warnings on her cell.

"I've only got one," Freddie replies with dismay, "and it's from my mom."

"Cheer up Fredhead, all ours are from Aspen," Sam growls after peeking at hers and Carly's phones.

"Blah, I'm going to be late for the mother-son kayaking expedition. You'll fill me in on the voice mails later, right?"

"Sure." "Maybe." The girls reply in unison.

"Alright, great rehearsal by the way. I'll see ya later."

Freddie exits through the glass door, leaving Sam and Carly alone to crash on the bean bags.

"Shouldn't Spencer be ready with dinner by now?" Sam inquires.

Carly shakes her head.

"We can't eat until we investigate the messages Aspen left us. I don't want to talk about it in front of Spencer," Carly explains.

"Ugh, I don't think I can listen to psycho lez babble on an empty stomach."

"Sam..."

"Fine, we'll listen to mine first," Sam decides while unlocking her keypad.

"Wait, only 3 of the messages are voice mails. One is a text."

"Let's look at the text first," Carly urges.

She clicks on the button to open the text and both girls gasp when they see the picture Aspen sent.

"Did she...she DID not!" Carly responds with rage.

"She did. She must've photodoc'd this...unless?"

"What are you insisting Sam?! That I would actually KISS Aspen?"

"Chillax, Carls. Fighting is exactly what she wants us to do. She expects you to crawl into her arms when we break up."

"Oh, right. I kinda forget we're dating," Carly blushes.

"Yeah, I would too, if it didn't take me off every guy in school's radar," Sam mumbles with the slightest hint of bitterness.


End file.
